About Us
Big Wheelbarrow was founded by a farmer and a foodie with a mission to help small farms get into supply chains. Shortly thereafter, a technical co-founder and an operations co-founder joined to fulfill a much larger mission of building sustainable local food systems. Collectively, our founding team has worked together at startups, food businesses and tech giants.
Sam Eder, co-founder and CEO
Foodie and board member of the Springdale Farm Education Center in Austin, Texas. Frequent SXSW speaker on digital marketing and strategy. For 16 years, Sam has worked with some of the world’s most visible brands including Apple, Bose, and Wells Fargo to craft and execute digital strategies around demand generation, customer experience, and online communities. He has experience in the Austin startup scene working for SKYLIST and Small World Labs.
Sam is obsessed with enabling people to switch to local and seasonally driven diets. As a contributor to the Fearless Critic food guide, Sam was immersed in the revolution of farm to table in its earliest days and was one of the organizers of the movement to make urban farming legal in the City of Austin. He continues to work with farmers and restaurant owners to support the local food scene and hosts a weekly food trivia night.
Ben McConnell, co-founder and CMO
Owner and operator of Boudin Food Forest, a Texas farm that grows produce and cut flowers. Prior to his farming life, Ben was a longtime customer experience consultant and author of two books on the subject. He was a partner at management consulting firm Ant’s Eye View and then managing director at PwC, where he pioneered programs to prepare corporate cultures such as Dell, Starbucks and Wells Fargo for digital transformation. He has successfully started and sold a business, Wabash & Lake.
Ben is passionate about farming and sells to local school districts, grocery stores, distributors and restaurants. Big Wheelbarrow is his mission to help grocery stores stock more items from nearby growers and producers.
Evan Alter, co-founder and CTO
Food gadget connoisseur and full-stack developer in Austin, Texas. Experienced web developer with deep knowledge of integrating third-party APIs into applications to create robust experiences. Evan has been in the middle of Austin’s startup scene for over 9 years with businesses such as SKYLIST, Volume11 Media, Pingboard, and RealSavvy where he built and maintained integrations with platforms such as Salesforce, Square, Facebook, and Google.
When not coding, Evan can be found trying out new restaurants around Austin or entertaining friends with his famous lobster risotto.
Christina Wing, co-founder and COO
Lifelong foodie, home gardener, and program/operations professional.
Christina brings a breadth of experience to the team with experience at tech giants like Apple and Dell, as well as state government and operational consulting for start-ups and small businesses. Her secret sauce is rolling out and operationalizing new initiatives at scale. With over 20 years of professional experience, Christina is grounded in customer experience and has grown and managed large online communities across multiple constituencies.
When she is not on the job, Christina is teaching her husband and five step-children to experiment in the kitchen and love exploring food as a family.
contact@bigwheelbarrow.com
SenecaOne Tower/1 West Seneca Street
Buffalo, NY 14203